Defining Resilience

There are numerous (but not unrelated) interpretations of the term ‘resilience’ which have each shaped the emerging definitions of resilience in regional and territorial studies (Martin, 2012). Some draw analogies from engineering, others from ecological studies and others from theories of complex adaptive systems.

We draw upon each of these, but most particularly on notions of complex adaptive systems thinking - a broad body of work that studies the underlying principles that are manifested in all kinds of system regardless of those system’s particular components. It provides a rich and useful framework for the cross-pollination of academic disciplines

Our working definition of resilience for this project is:

The ability of a regional economy to withstand, absorb or overcome an external economic shock.

How is a recession defined in ECR2?

In recent years, the terms economic crises and recession have become prominent words in daily life. How are these key phrases defined? Economic Crisis is understood to imply a significant economic shock; for the purposes of this project this is understood to mean a recessionary event, either at a European, national, or a regional level. A recessionary event is defined as negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters (or 6 months). However, data is often only available annually for the number of regions considered in the study. In consequence we will take the position that one year of negative growth in the GVA/GDP of a region constitutes a recession.